Author Archives: admin

A Fistful Of Collars, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Eithne Browne, Suzanne Collins, Lindzi Germain, Angela Simms, Alan Stocks, Lenny Wood.

The world is a harsh place at times, not everybody plays by the same rules and those who are fair, honest and upright in their morals are the ones forever being treated like dirt, that they have the very will to continue offering the service they do is a measure of their honour, that they refuse to be stitched up by those kicking against them a sign of their trustworthy and good nature.

A Fistful Of Collars, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

The Grip Of A Fascist Pain.

I need to hold your hand

when the pain hits, when

it comes in waves I need

you to mop my brow and tell me

that it will soon subside,

that it will eventually release

me from its iron grip and the clench

of anguish, the fascist dictator rising up

and telling me that the pain

will set me free, it will consume me

but it is for my own good;

I want nothing more

than to pull the trigger on that

son of a bitch, to make it disappear

The Grip Of A Fascist Pain. full post

(157 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Carl Moorcroft, On The Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To evolve is to never stand still and be sucked in by the glories of the past, to not give way to the static and constantly biting inactivity which preludes fading away in the minds of others. Some evolve through necessity, some through choice and some, rare beings of personal truth, do it because it is the right thing to do, to them being fresh is to reject the inevitable stagnation that comes with age and the growing boredom. It is a boredom rejected fully and with acoustic skill by Carl Moorcroft and his reflection of musical evolvement; On The Road.

Carl Moorcroft, On The Road. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Sweet Deals On Surgery, The Snake And The Snoozer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Never compromise, not where your belief in what your art is trying to say anyway; in other areas of life , concession is the rule of law we must stick to if we are to gain any type of solid ground to which civilisation will flourish but in art, never. If it is provocative then so be it, if it stands out then so much the better and if it has a concept behind it, that magical piece of story-telling to which all art wants to relate to, then let it explode in your ears as if all the thunder that ever raged above the Earth were to reign down in one seismic storm.

Sweet Deals On Surgery, The Snake And The Snoozer. Album Review. full post

(435 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

(The Trouble Is), We Expect It As Routine.

Another day, another town,

and life goes on around

as they make you scared, bit by bit

to leave your home, to leave your room

and yet become expectant of another

atrocity, another killing in the name

of a faith, of a devotion to the word

of death, the ultimate cult,

the end justifying the means

of swift negotiation with a bullet,

bomb or sword;

another day, another town

and life goes on around

but it feels more sinister,

both sides want you to be afraid

(The Trouble Is), We Expect It As Routine. full post

(110 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

The Dead Cassettes, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life is too short to waste worrying too much about the past, it should be seen as a guide, a tutor, the teacher who educates to the point where the lessons are learned, committed to memory, and then the individual should be able to move on with the next moment where they step out blinking in the sun and putting their next triumph on show for people to take notice. We all have regrets, we all play that same image in our heads over and over again, it is natural to think back to the time when the path became a choice; it is taken and we deal, it just might be that the soundtrack is better, even on the Dead Cassettes.

The Dead Cassettes, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Tipping Cows.

Being in part a country boy,

raised with Cornish ideals

and my teenage years in a small

rural market town

deep in the Oxfordshire

countryside, summers in glorious

abandon on Guernsey country lanes,

I see no problem with tipping cows,

after all most work hard

in the sweaty conditions

of any restaurant and they get treated

like serfs by the chefs;

I see no problem with giving them

fifteen percent

on top of the bill, especially

if they give a courteous moo.

Tipping Cows. full post

(89 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)

Choc Electrique, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Choc Electrique in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In the shadow of the now abandoned St. Andrews Church, a building that once tried to save souls and dish out compassion, where a modern for sale sign bristles against the thought of commercialism and the ravage of capitalism, a front man of delight of dedication reached out to the assembled and took them on a small journey of groove, a service of musical enlightenment and to one which the pulpit of the stage was not big enough, one in which the superb Choc Electrique powered over the crowd and Greedy Jesus, the front man for the 21^st Century led the congregation into musical heaven.

Choc Electrique, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(466 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Hegarty, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The storming finish, the band that gets people up to dance and forget the finite detail of the week they may have had, the month they have had to scrape through, that band is worth its weight in gold. It may be the one that you turn to when all seems desperate, the loose ended feeling, your all time favourite from decades past, yet a band that can calm the nerves, stop the pressure from boiling over and take you out of your head as a Saturday folds itself away into the past forever, that is the band in which to really be seen with. There are a few of them in Liverpool, in the freshly young bracket that are 21^st Century delivered, they all stand out, as too does the final group in the Battle of the Bands, the festival of musical things on the bowling green lawn in Bootle – Hegarty.

Hegarty, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

The Huyton Minstrel, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is not just Bootle that can be seen as being forgotten in many ways by the higher powers that be, the area of Huyton, as well as other places in the North West and those beyond the remit of the Westminster village, has also suffered and its people, those who work in the on-going rejuvenation of Liverpool, must at times wonder when is it their turn and who really speaks for them, what weaver of words is their lauded king or queen to make the area stand up for itself.

The Huyton Minstrel, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)